Rain, More Rain, Fire, Roll Out The Yellow And The Winner Is.......

What a race!!!! Sandy and I thought we have seen every thing at the Daytona 500 but no not this year. For the first time ever the Daytona was postponed due to rain on Sunday. They rescheduled it for noon on Monday but it rained again. Then finally they were able to get it started Monday night which is another first.

With 40 laps to go they red flagged the race due to an incident involving Montoya and a jet dryer truck. Something broke on his car during a caution that caused Montoya to crash into the jet dryer causing a huge explosion and fire from the jet fuel.

They delayed the race for over two hours due to the fire and cleanup afterwards. They had their eighth caution of the race with 25 laps to go. The race restarted with 18 laps to go. With 13 laps to go caution number nine due to a major wreck involving McMurray and about seven other cars.

The race resumed with seven laps to go. The top five when it restarted was Kenseth, Biffle, Dale Jr, Hamlin and Burton. With four to go we have caution number ten involving Stenhouse and Stewart. There were at least seven cars involved in this wreck. At this rate there will be no cars left. The race resumed with a green, white checkered. The winner is.......Kenseth with Dale Jr finishing a car length second, Biffle third, Hamlin fourth and Burton fifth. The race started on a Monday and finished on a Tuesday. This will go down as an unforgettable six hour marathon. Now on to Phoenix. (All photos by Getty Images for NASCAR)

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Barksdale AFB & 8th Air Force Museum

Friday two weeks ago my BIL Mike took us to Bossier City, La home of the 8th Air Force Museum and B52 Bomber. Upon arrival we cleared security at the main gate and proceeded to the museum. The ladies went shopping.

We drove by the Historical Housing District and saw many beautiful homes used by the families. Houses on the main base were originally built in 1932 and 1959, and the style has been preserved in any new housing being built. The large, two-story units on the main base depict French colonial settings. These homes were placed on the National Registry of National Registry of Historic Places in April 1992, along with more than 200 buildings on the main base that now comprise the Barksdale Historic District.

The museum was founded more than 30 years ago and is the caretaker of rare airplanes that include B-24, B-17, B-29, B-52, FB-111, British Vulcan bombers, and SR71 Blackbird to mention a few. Overall I believe there are more than 28 total static aircraft on display.

Also on exhibit in the museum is an exclusive September 11, 2001 exhibit. The actual podium and furniture are displayed when U.S. President George W. Bush made the first speech during the terrorist attack on the twin towers.

As we were leaving we saw this bad boy taking off.

Our tour took about an hour and half and was worth every minute. We returned to the mall to join up with the ladies. To our surprise with the exception of several packages they were pretty empty handed. They both wanted us to go with them to Best Buy so they could show us a wireless keypad they both wanted for their IPads. We approved (not that they needed our approval anyway) and they each came home with one. On our way home Mike treated us to dinner at the Longhorn Steak House. Thanks Mike and Pam for a wonderful day.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

In Loving Memory Of My Mom and Answers To Prayer

MARY E ROFFE
10/21/17-2/17/12

Mother has had her bags packed for quite awhile ready to go to be with the Lord. Mom would have been 95 years old this October. These past few weeks have been her worst. The pain of arthritis, neuropathy, and other ailments had become very difficult for her and because of these I firmly believe she was ready for the Lord to take her home.

I'm told she  passed peacefully and quickly once she got to the hospital which was another answer to prayer. While no one wants to loose a love one and because of her suffering we feel very blessed that the Lord took her home when he did. We are also blessed that the good Lord allowed her to be with us for 94+ years. One of our prayers was for the Lord to take her home and her not have to leave her assisted living home at Rosemont. She absolutely loved this place. He followed through with this request.

While we may be sad we are also happy that she is no longer in pain and has a new body. No more does she need her scooter or assistance to go from her bed to her favorite recliner.

I guess if you would ask the hardest thing for us was the morning we went over to clear out her personal things. Normally when we visited her Sandy and I would come to her door and quietly open her door. Usually she would be sound asleep  in that favorite chair. The surprised look and joy she expressed when she awoke and saw us was worth all the gold in the world. That morning she was not there and we miss her dearly.

She has also reunited with her best friend and lover, our Dad who went to be with the good Lord 38 years ago.
We love you Mom and Dad. Rest in peace.
The Kids

What A Strange Start To Our Day and Barksdale AFB

Sandy and I were up by 5:30am in anticipation of our trip to Barksdale AFB with her sister Pam and BIL Mike. As we were exiting the motorhome I noticed behind us a strange car parked on our side of the driveway entrance. I asked Sandy did she recognize the car and she said no she's never seen it before. It was still pretty dark so I decided to walk over to see who it might be. As I drew near I could tell it appeared no one was in the vehicle. I came back and Sandy was talking on her cell phone to her brother James. He said he didn't know why the car was there and we should call the police.

I didn't want to do this so we drove around to the the drivers side of the vehicle. I got out and tapped on the drivers side window. I saw a male figure raise up from the front seat and turned the ignition on to roll down the window.  He was a young man in his early thirties. I asked him what he was doing in my driveway and did he realize he was on private property. He replied he wasn't aware of this and was just tired and sleepy. He said he pulled in about 2am this morning. I asked him if perhaps he might have had to much to drink. He said no just tired. I told him he needed to move on and this he did. As he drove off we both said......"What a strange start to our day."

After he left we noticed there were pretty dark looking clouds to our west. Sandy looked at her weather app on her IPhone and what we saw heading our way was a storm system.. Oh nooooo  looks like our trip to Shreveport might get rained out. We saw the storm was tracking more northeast and just might miss Shreveport. So, off we headed to Longview to meet up with Pam and Mike.

On our way we ran into several popup showers but decided we would continue on. We stopped at the Whataburger and had breakfast. After we ate it was about thirty minutes before we were to be at Pam and Mikes home. I asked Sandy if we should call them to let them know we were headed their way. She called and got no answer. I said I hope they are not on their way to join up with us in Lone Star.  Originally our plans were for them to pick us up at the motorhome. We changed plans last night as I needed to check the Post Office to see if my medicine from VA was in.

Lady luck was on our side. Just as we turned on to their street who do we see........them in their Toyota. We stopped and asked them where were they headed. Yes, you got it they were on their way to Lone Star to pick us up. They had forgotten our conversation last night. Now who has memory problems they are much younger than us.

We finally got our act together and headed out to Shreveport about 9:15am. As we were running down I-20 I over heard Sandy and her sister talking about perhaps they would prefer  we drop them off at the shopping strip center off Youree Drive and us guys go on to Barksdale without them.

This strip center has the usual stores that women enjoy shopping at like Bed Bath & Beyond, TJ Max, Target and many more. So, as they wished we dropped them off and said we would be back in about two hours to pick them up. After dropping them off Mike and I headed to Barksdale AFB which was about eight miles from where we were. So far we've had no rain just over cast skies.

I didn't know this at the time but in order to get on the base you had to have a Military ID. Mike being retired Navy after 24 years had one and we drove right in after showing his ID to the gate guard.
Well I see I've managed to ramble way to long so we will have to cover our tour of the base in a later post. I might add it was a great two hour tour of the museum  and static aircraft displays on the Airpark.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

3G And A Trip To Barksdale AFB

We made a trip into Longview for the usual things like to Walmart for groceries, Best Buy for printer ink, Hayes RV for fluorescent bulbs, and Chick-fil-a for lunch. I also had an appointment for blood work at the Regional VA clinic.

They check my PT-INR blood level to make sure its within the desired range as I'm on Warfarin which thins my blood to avoid clots. The most common INR target range for someone on Warfarin is somewhere between 2.0 and 4.0. As long as mine falls in the 2.0-2.5 they are happy. Will know my results tomorrow as they have to send it off to the lab at VA Shreveport.

When we returned from Longview we unloaded our groceries and Sandy took off to her Mom's where she fixes her evening meals and makes sure she takes her medicine. While Sandy was gone I was playing with my IPhone 4 and happened to notice that our signal strength had gone from E (Edge) which is a snails pace for a cellular signal to 3G.

Wow!!! What a surprise we've been in the dark ages for so long that I couldn't believe it. I quickly called Sandy an told her the great news. We've been waiting for this upgrade for over a year. AT&T had promised us it was coming but couldn't tell us when. Thank you AT&T now bring on 4G.

My BIL Mike called and wanted to know if Sandy and I wanted to go with them to Barksdale AFB, home of the B-52 Strategic bomber in Shreveport tomorrow. They have a Eight Air Force Museum there  that we will walk through.  They have vintage aircraft like the B-17 and B-24 bombers of World War II; along with the P-51 Mustang and SR-71 Blackbird. You can also see the B-52D and B-52G Stratofortress plus many more static aircraft in their Airpark. Will post more information and photos of our visit in a later post.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Burrrrrrr

Overnite we had ourselves a little over 1/2" of sleet. This is the system that has finally just about worked its way through Lone Star. The sleet did not stick to our roads but it was quite evident on the ground, on our Jeep and our steps. The steps were very treacherous as we stepped outside this morning. Sure was glad we have a handle near our door entry otherwise I might have found myself bouncing out the door.

We had a couple of earns to run over in Dangerfield where we picked up at the grocery store the makings for white chicken chili soup. This with a pan of Sandy's cornbread will make a perfect meal for the kind of weather we are having today.

BIL James dropped by for a visit and advised he may have found a portable building 16ft x 32ft. He's been in the market for something on this order to move on his land for storage and a man cave.
The building already has plumbing with a small bathroom and electrical wiring in place. It was built in 2006 and built on rails therefore making it portable for moving. All we need is to find a house moving company to move it provided the present owner accepts our counter offer.

As for the man cave we are talking on the lines of a large screen TV, appropriate man cave furniture and with a large refrigerator for keeping cold drinks and snacks. Now if we can only convince the lady folks this is what we need. I personally think its a good thing as it will keep the men folks out of their hair.

On another note we received January's Verizon air card bill and had a heart stopping moment. The bill was $193 which is about three times what we've been paying for the past two and half years for the 5120MB. We have never exceeded the allocated amount. In fact normally leave data on the table each billing cycle.

Upon examination of our data usage they showed we had gone over the allocated 5120MB by nearly 2500+MB . The strange thing about this is Sandy checks our data usage at least three times a week. The info on line did not show the excessive usage even up until three days prior to the ending of the monthly data allowance bill cycle. It showed our usage was well below the allotted data amount.

In fact we even received an email from Verizon stating with three days before the bill cycle ended we had used only 50% of our allotted data. Any way after discussing this with Verizon they had no explanation as to why the excessive data occurred They did agree to adjust our bill accordingly and we thank them for that.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

A Big Change In Our Weather

The change in our weather has put a damper on my outside chores. Our weather has been very cold. It got down to 25 degrees last night and the weatherman is calling for a slight chance of snow or sleet tonight.

Up until Friday I had been doing cleaning and maintenance on the motorhome. I started applying Solution to the upper third of the motorhome and had to stop due to the rain the middle part of last week. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about our weather as we are grateful for every drop we get. I might say a lot of our creeks, stock tanks and smaller bodies of water have returned to pre drought levels. Our larger lakes are still down below their normal.

I did get the task of treating both slide out gaskets with 303 protectant. I do this twice a year to keep them in good shape and provide UV protection. Since it is hard for me to get up on the roof, I have Sandy let the slide outs in about two thirds of the way. This allows me to use my 12ft ladder and puts the top gaskets within arms reach.

I pour some 303 into a small container and use a sponge brush to apply the protectant. I guess I need to clarify here.....we do not have slide out toppers. Sometimes I wish we had them and then there are times I'm glade we don't particularly during high winds, snow or icy conditions. I've read where to many have had to let their slides in due to the noise the toppers create in high winds.

My next task was to change our house water filter and water pressure regulator. Our water pressure had suddenly went to practically nothing and I suspected these to be the culprits. Sure nuff after I changed them out our water pressure returned to normal. When I tapped on the regulator quite a few calcium deposits fell out.
My next project is to drain and flush our hot water heater when our weather warms up a bit. My friend Mark help me do this the last time when we were at Cowtown RV park outside Fort Worth in November 2010. This will also give me a chance to see what kind of condition my anode rod is in.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

NY GIANTS SUPER BOWL XLVI CHAMPS

                                    21                  17

It's over and the Giants are this years Super Bowl Champs. Sandy is on cloud 9 as her Giants won and Little Eli got the MVP. All I can say is what a game. It came down to either team could have won it.This very well may have been the best Super Bowl ever.

Sandy watched the post game interviews and highlights on the NFL Channel after the game and I be dang if she didn't climb back up in the clouds.

Next is NASCAR. It's season starts the end of this month with the daddy of them all.......the Daytona 500. Looking forward to another race season. Let's booghty…..booghty!

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Who Needs To Go To The Southwest

Other than a need for change of scenery and to satisfy that "hitch itch", who needs to go to the Southwest. Our weather for the month of January has been unseasonably warm. Today was near a perfect day as our high was around 68 degrees with a nice breeze out of the South. This allowed Sandy and I to get out a rake some more leaves. It was a little windy to do any burning.

With the rain we've had the grass is beginning to grow. So, I got the lawnmower out and mowed most of the seven acres. It sure has been nice to get out of the home on wheels compared to last February at this time we were snowed in at Canton with a little over five inches of snow. Hope I don't jinx our chance of continued good weather by bragging about how nice it has been these last four weeks. What is that old saying "if you don't like the weather in Texas.....just blink."

This nice weather has also allowed me to get out and start applying The Solution to the motorhome. I really like this stuff.....so easy to apply and take off. On top of that it leaves the skin of the motorhome so squeaky slick/clean and provides excellent protection.
This time I’ll get the ladder out and start on the upper third of the coach. I normally do the lower two thirds first but since I take awhile to do the upper third I thought this way I will get this job out of the way. It usually will take me two days to do the upper third and one day to do the lower. Climbing up and down the ladder isn't one of my favorite things to do.

Since we are not going to Canton this weekend I thought it would be a good time to exercise the HWH jacks and run the engine for about thirty minutes. I will also undo the shore power and run the Genset under load during this time.

Our four house batteries are about five years old and I believe they are due to be replaced. They won't stay up when the inverter is running. Is anyone out there familiar with US Battery?
I've done some research and the US125XC is the choice I'm leaning toward.

I'm told that US Battery is the only USA battery manufacturer and US Battery use to manufacture batteries for Interstate Battery but now they are being made in Mexico by Johnson Controls.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.